Sheila reaches for the top with a book

TREKKING up Mount Everest inspired Durban resident Sheila Naidoo to write a book about her adventure with the hope of motivating others to do likewise.

The 176-page, self-published Higher Ground captures her mission last year which she dedicated to her mother, Nancy Pillay.

“Reaching the base camp and seeing the amazing

Khumbu Icefall was an amazing achievement, given the mental and physical challenges we endured.

“I felt a sense of profound accomplishment because, after 40 years, I saw my dream of climbing Mount Everest unfold before my eyes,” she said.

Naidoo started writing the book, which is in two parts, after she returned home in June and completed it last month.

“In part one I take the reader on the trek to the base camp and in part two I detail my childhood and growing up in abject poverty.

“From the age of 10, I was fascinated by Mount Everest and especially the Khumbu Icefall, a body of snow at the base camp,” she said.

Naidoo said she was led to believe the climb through the icefall on the way to the summit was the most dangerous part.

“They spoke of using ladders to cross sides and I wanted to know what this meant. So Mount Everest made its way on to my bucket list. This journey was so extreme that it pushed us beyond our limits and expectations.

“It made me realise that I have amazing inner strength and tenacity that just needed to be activated. A message like this should be shared with the world for the many who need some kind of stimulus,” said Naidoo.

She believes the book will help get people off the couch to pursue long-forgotten dreams.

“If we are willing to work hard and have faith in God and ourselves, nothing is impossible. On top of the world, left.the gruelling climb up Mount Everest inspired Sheila Naidoo, who took up the challenge to write a book about it in the hope that it would motivate others to be determined to achieve.

My message is that there are endless possibilities in life.

“It’s okay to have ‘off’ days, when you feel down in the dumps, but don’t stay there. We must keep moving. We cannot live in defeat,” Naidoo said.

The book also promotes the notion that “age is no barrier to achieving dreams”.

“Don’t listen to anybody who tells you that you cannot do something. It depends on how much you want it.

“We kept going despite feeling sick. In extreme difficulty, it’s amazing how our survival instincts kick in,” she said.

“I grew up in a home with violence. My dad was an alcoholic and very abusive. We didn’t have electricity and we had to study and do our homework by candlelight.

“We must break the mould. I’ve lived my dream and written a book about it,” said the bank manager.